-- THE ARCHIVE --

UNITED STATES
Domestic CP - January 2006

Men's Health (USA), January-February 2006

Yankton Press & Dakotan, South Dakota, 3 January 2006

Justices Say Spanking Went Overboard

By Joe KafkaAssociated Press Writer

PIERRE -- Without ruling that spanking an unruly child with a
belt goes beyond the boundaries of a state law allowing corporal
punishment, the South Dakota Supreme Court has decided that a
Huron woman went overboard in correcting her daughter.

The unanimous decision on Thursday upheld an earlier ruling by
Circuit Judge Jon Erickson, who said it was child abuse when the
girl was struck several times on the buttocks with a belt.

Neither the girl nor her mother are identified in court
records because of a state law providing confidentiality in
abuse-and-neglect proceedings.

The girl, 11, was spanked on Aug. 2, 2004, because she was
crying, screaming and slamming doors. She had been grounded much
of the summer for stealing a music CD from a store on June 4 and
continuing to misbehave.

The girl had a tantrum after her stepfather said she could no
longer go to swimming lessons because she refused to clean marker
scribblings she'd made on the carpet and walls of her bedroom.

When the girl failed to quiet down, the mother punished her
with a belt. The girl later ran, crying, to the local Department
of Social Services office.

Social workers had been in contact with the family two years
earlier after a teacher reported seeing bruises on a younger
sister.

The parents said at the time that they used a belt as a last
resort and also punished their children by requiring them to
stand in a corner on one leg. The couple's three children were
temporarily removed from the home but were returned after the
couple agreed to attend parenting classes.

Testifying after an abuse-and-neglect petition was filed
against the mother last year and the 11-year-old was put in
foster care, the mother said she'd had contact with social
workers while the family lived earlier in Tennessee. She said
that state allowed parents to spank their children, defending the
2004 spanking as reasonable and a last resort.

Although Judge Erickson said the woman had the legal authority
to punish her daughter, he said the belt spanking was excessive
and amounted to abuse.

State law allows parents to use physical punishment on
children who misbehave, but the punishment must not be severe,
the Supreme Court said.

"The Legislature has determined ... that corporal
punishment will not be absolutely prohibited, nor will it be
allowed in all instances with any amount of force a parent
decides to use," wrote Chief Justice David Gilbertson.

Physical punishment of children is permitted if it is
necessary and the force is reasonable, the high court added.

Justice Judith Meierhenry said she agrees with the circuit
judge's determination that the mother went overboard in using a
belt to spank her daughter, but the justice said the high court's
ruling provides little guidance on the amount of legal force a
parent can use.

"What appears to be unacceptable in this case is that
(the) mother used a belt and hit the child six or seven times
with a force that did not leave bruises but made the child
uncomfortable," Meierhenry wrote.

"This restricted interpretation could be a very slippery
slope for the trial courts," she added. "Spanking is
out of favor under modern theories of child rearing, yet the
Legislature still recognizes the parent's right to enforce
physical punishment. Thus, resolution of these conflicting
theories is left to the individual judge on a case-by-case basis
and indubitably does not give clear direction to parents who
might be hauled into court on abuse-and-neglect claims."

The Dallas Morning News, Texas, 13 January 2006

To UT recruit Kindle, 'Pops' is king

(extracts)

Sergio Kindle won't see much of Austin's Sixth Street party
scene if his father has his way.

Woodrow Wilson's All-America linebacker/tailback graduated
early and will start classes at Texas next week, but his father's
curfew will still be enforced.

Johnny Walker bought Kindle a cellular phone to make it easy
to keep track of him. Walker has already warned his son to expect
a nightly call at 9 p.m.

"If he isn't in his room," Walker said, "I'll
be down there in a minute."

Walker has always gone to great lengths to get the best out of
his two sons, Kindle, 18, and Calvin Walker, 17. He's a single
father determined to see his sons succeed despite the absence of
their mother, who he said was a drug addict.

Kindle's a humble superstar who was one of the nation's most
highly recruited players and will sign his letter of intent Feb.
1. Calvin, a Woodrow junior, dreams of playing against his older
brother in college.

Walker coached his sons in football until they went to
Woodrow, where he is a frequent practice visitor who eagerly
voices his opinion. He instilled a work ethic in them by giving
them chores around the house.

And he dragged them along to the odd jobs he worked to make
ends meet. And he provided love and discipline in equal doses.

"Johnny was the mama and the daddy," said Woodrow
basketball coach Pat Washington, a longtime family friend.
"He rules that house with an iron fist."

Pops, as his sons call him, couldn't be prouder of his boys.
That's obvious from the moment you walk in the door of the
family's Oak Cliff home. (The brothers received a hardship waiver
to attend Woodrow Wilson, in East Dallas, before Sergio's
freshman year.)

The walls in the living room are decorated with photos of
Sergio and Calvin in football uniforms, dating to the days when
their father and Washington coached them at the Turnkey Boys
Club. There are also plaques commemorating the careers of Kindle
and his overshadowed brother, a Woodrow junior defensive lineman
who earned all-district recognition the last two seasons.

A wooden paddle, wrapped in duct tape and tucked behind a
couch, is a reminder of the tough times and their dad's strict
nature.

NATHAN HUNSINGER/DMN Instilling work ethic meant household
chores. One that fell to Kindle was dish duty, one week each
month.

No nonsense

Johnny Walker said he had never heard of crack cocaine until
he learned that his sons' mother, with whom he lived but never
married, was sneaking out of the house to smoke it while he
worked at night.

Walker kicked her out of the house when the boys were
toddlers. He came home one night to find a broken window and a
note from neighbors that said they had taken the kids after
witnessing their mother leaving in the middle of the night.

The brothers acknowledge that they harbored bitter feelings
toward female authority figures for years. Walker said calls from
teachers upset with his sons' behavior were daily occurrences.

"Any type of female say-so didn't fly with us," said
Kindle, who has his mother's surname.

Acting up at school didn't fly with their father. He came up
with a couple of simple rules for his sons: They got five licks
for every call home from a teacher and one lick per point for
grades under 75.

"I was a little rascal back in the day," said Calvin
Walker, admitting that he was a bit more mischievous than his
brother. Kindle said he used to be "easily persuaded"
and often was paddled, too.

The paddle wasn't their father's only means for getting his
point across. He'd often take them for long drives to discuss
life.

"We did a lot of riding, a lot of talking," Johnny
said.

[...]

RANDY ELI GROTHE/DMN Johnny Walker kept a close eye on sons
Sergio Kindle (left) and Calvin Walker, and he plans to continue
doing so when Kindle begins classes as a freshman at Texas next
week.

"He gets mad when we win," Calvin said of his
smack-talking dad. "He says we're cheating."

Sergio and Calvin said their friends enjoy hanging out at
their home because Pops is cool. Johnny Walker likes for his
house to be the hangout.

"That way I know what's going on," he said.

He'll have to work a little harder to keep up now, with Kindle
living a couple hundred miles down Interstate 35. Walker will
manage with several calls a day and a trip or two to Austin per
month.

The Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio, 26 January 2006

Crime or punishment?

He testifies he wanted to teach - but not injure - his
teenage son

By Sharon CoolidgeEnquirer Staff Writer

Former Cincinnati City Councilman Sam Malone on Wednesday
defended whipping his son with a belt, explaining during his
trial on a charge of domestic violence that he wanted to teach
the teenager not to disrespect authority.

During three hours of testimony, Malone said at least three
times that he was disappointed - not angry - at his 14-year-old
son for disrespecting a teacher during a school field trip to
Paramount's Kings Island on May 13.

"I told (my son), and he probably didn't believe me, that
it hurt me more than it hurt him," Malone said.

Photographs taken at the hospital and introduced into evidence
show welts on the teen's arms, legs, chest and buttocks.

At issue is whether Malone was within the law in punishing his
son.

Ohio law permits corporal punishment, but says it can go too
far. When it puts the child at risk of death, causes serious
physical injury or results in substantial pain, a parent has
crossed the line from punishment to a crime.

Malone waived his right to a jury trial, leaving the decision
to Hamilton County Municipal Judge Russell Mock.

Mock said he'll issue a decision Feb. 17.

If Malone is found guilty, he could face a sentence of up to
six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine.

The punishment went beyond reasonable discipline, said
Assistant Columbus City Prosecutor Anne Murray, who is handling
the case at the request of the Cincinnati Prosecutor's Office,
which recused itself because of the conflict of interest
presented by Malone being on the council when he was arrested.

"This wasn't a butt-whupping, this was more than a simple
teaching moment," Murray told the judge in closing
arguments. "What you have and what you'll be able to find is
that Sam Malone committed domestic violence."

She repeatedly pointed out that Malone was a trained boxer,
was a power lifter and had wrestled in high school.

Malone has never denied hitting his son, said Hal Arenstein,
his lawyer.

"There's pain, that's the idea, that's the teaching
element that's involved here," Arenstein said. "It may
not be the way I raise my child or the way you raise yours, but
to some fathers in this community, it's the only way to raise
their child."

Malone's son testified Monday that his father was angry over
the Kings Island incident and told him to go upstairs and take
his clothes off, leaving only his underwear on.

"He started whipping me with a belt, he had it wrapped
double on his hand," the teenager said. "He kept on
hitting me, and I fell over, and he kept on hitting me."

He said that he was in pain and crying and Malone kept hitting
him.

Malone testified Wednesday it wasn't enough to take privileges
away or make the boy write an essay, as he had done before. He
said he had hit his son three or four times in the past and felt
the teacher's call, coming just days after he discovered his son
forged his signature on a school note that said he may fail the
eighth grade, was reasonable.

It was, however, the first time his son resisted, Malone said.
"I spanked him, struck him on his buttocks twice," he
said. "When I got ready to hit him again, he turned around
and grabbed my right wrist."

The two grappled, with Malone gripping the teen in a headlock.
He said they fell and he hit his son four more times.

"I grabbed his wrist to turn him around, I was aiming at
his buttocks, but he moved."

Malone said he never meant to hit another part of his son's
body.

Before leaving the room, Malone told his son he would be back
and he was going to "beat the black off" him.

"I wanted him to think about what he had done, I wanted
to scare him, I wanted him to realize what he did was
inappropriate, that that type of behavior was totally
unacceptable."

Raising a black teenager isn't easy, Malone said. "You
have to teach them the fundamentals of life, to be competitive,
not to look for handouts," he said. "There will be
challenges, but they have to adapt and overcome them.

"I always try to communicate that the biggest challenge
is the educational piece," Malone said. "Some guys do
not maintain the discipline of school; they find ways to make
quick cash, selling drugs, turning to a life of crime, doing
illicit acts. Some guys just don't know better, but you have to
stay focused."

Malone, 35, was arrested May 14 after another boy living in
his Walnut Hills home called 911 and said the 14-year-old didn't
feel safe there.

Malone's son then got on the phone, crying and repeatedly
asking the police dispatcher if he'd have to return to the house.

A family member took the teen to the hospital. The teen said
one welt from the belt's buckle disappeared just last month.

Malone hasn't had contact with his son since that night. The
boy is staying with an aunt, who is seeking custody of her
nephew. The boy's mother, who never married Malone, died in a
2002 car accident when the boy was 11. That's when the boy went
to live with Malone.

Malone's arrest sparked controversy in Cincinnati as citizens
weighed in on whether their councilman abused his son. The
Hamilton County Sheriff's Office was even called on to
investigate whether Cincinnati police handled the arrest
properly, resulting in a determination that police did not
violate any laws.

As Arenstein wrapped up his defense Wednesday, the attorney
asked Malone if he loved his son.

Malone paused, his perfect posture crumpled.

He tucked his head to his chest, bit his lip and sniffed back
tears. "Of course," he said, wiping a single tear away
with the back of his hand.

Photos By Gary Landers/the
Enquirer

Former Cincinnati
City Councilman Sam Malone shows during his
testimony Wednesday in Hamilton County Municipal
Court how he held his son's arm while he
attempted to hit his buttocks with a belt.

Legal definitions

In Ohio:
If a person slaps a spouse, it's considered a
domestic violence crime.

The punishment - if any - isn't so clear if that
same person hits a child because Ohio law allows
corporal punishment.

It was challenged in the late 1980s, prompting
the Ohio Supreme Court to issue a decision in
1991 that said while corporal punishment is
permissible, a parent can go too far. A parent
can be charged with domestic violence, a charge
that for a first-time offender carries a
punishment of up to six months in jail and up to
a $1,000 fine.

The 1st District Court of Appeals in Hamilton
County weighed in on the issue in August 2004.
Judge Robert Winkler said that to rise above
discipline and become domestic violence, a
parent's actions create "a risk of death,
serious injury or substantial pain."

In Kentucky: The law defines child abuse as
behavior that causes physical injury, but it
exempts "reasonable" corporal
punishment. However, the law does not
specifically define reasonable.